5 FEBRUARY 1927, Page 21

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Miss .Constance Kent, who murdered a baby, carried it • carefully downstairs on one arm and paused in the drawing- room to put on her goloshes. Then she went to a closet and cut its throat with a razor. These and other very horrible stories, each with .a curious sidelight on psychology," are related in Murder at Smutty Nose, a series of "historical accounts of fourteen most amazing murders," by Mr. Edmund Pearson (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.). Many people who shun the sensationalism of the modern Press read such records of bygone horrors with an unabashed delight. To them, this book will mtike a strong appeal, but we trust that we will not be thought. prudish if we say that we hope the appeal will be resisted. Frankly, these are good murder stories, but, after all, the world is full of good reading which is not also morbid. This is not a bedside book.